Lumiere Declaration Sets 15 Principles for Global Film Governance, Calling Audience Attention ‘a Trust to Be Honored, Not a Resource to Be Captured’

Representatives of countries, international organizations, film, television and gaming industry leaders, creators, festivals and cultural institutions from across the world adopted the Lumière Declaration on the Future of Cinema and the Moving Image on Monday at the Lumière Summit in Saint-Paul-de-Vence. Jointly presented by France and the Republic of Korea and convened under the co-chairship of their respective presidents, the declaration sets out 15 principles and remains open for further signatures. They are, it states, “a common good: a vehicle for emotion, memory and knowledge, for individual emancipation and collective transformation.” Ambitious, intentional works “remain irreplaceable,” and “the future of our industries will be defined by the works we choose to create and support.” The sharpest line in the document draws a direct contrast with algorithmic platforms: “The attention of an audience is not a resource to be captured, but a trust to be honored.” That conviction runs through several further principles — on who makes stories (“the richness of the stories we tell depends on the diversity of those who create them”), on the conditions under which they are made (“freedom of creation is a condition of the vitality and diversity of the moving image”), and on those who face “political, economic or social pressures that threaten their ability to create and to be heard,” for whom the declaration backs international networks of solidarity.

An industry that excludes women or operates in unsafe conditions, it states, must become “exemplary in the exercise” of its power to shape representations. On economics, the declaration is equally explicit. On heritage, it warns of “the critical period for the conservation of physical archives, whose elements degrade inexorably over time,” calling for investment and solidarity so that “every country can pass its memory on, alive and visible, to future generations.” On education: “Just as previous centuries pursued universal literacy in the written word, the age of images demands an equally ambitious commitment to image literacy,” with cinema identified as “one of the last places where individual screens are switched off and where we learn, again, to watch together.” A final principle commits signatories to developing “best practices, flexible standards, and practical tools for the design and implementation of sustainable production, distribution and exhibition.” The signatories committed to remain collectively engaged and to review progress together.